High Jumper Sotomayor To Skip Toronto Showdown

Aqui' y alla' - News from the Caribbean and Latin America

May 30, 1997

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO — World record-holding high jumper Javier Sotomayor will skip a star-studded showdown this weekend even though sports officials said he was in good form after training in Puerto Rico.

Cuba's Sotomayor instead will make his comeback to competition from injury in France Monday, Cuban sports officials said. Sotomayor, who underwent treatment for knee and heel injuries after a poor showing in July's Atlanta Olympics, has not competed since those games.

The announcement means Sotomayor, 29, will not attend an all-star extravaganza in Toronto, where he was to compete against Olympic champion Charles Austin. Officials gave no reasons for the decision, but they said the athlete was in good form.

Arrow Air on the mark as San Juan freight carrier

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico

New official figures released by San Juan airport authorities show that Arrow Air, the Miami-based all-cargo airline, has become the No. 1 carrier of domestic air freight in and out of the island capital.

During the last quarter of 1996, Arrow Air carried 31,455,664 pounds of domestic cargo between Luis Munoz Marin International Airport and the mainland United States. That is more than 20 percent of the total San Juan domestic cargo market, which is served by 21 commercial cargo airlines.

Earthquake in Mexico described as moderate

MEXICO CITY

A moderate earthquake hit southern Mexico, but there were no reports of injuries or damage.

The 4.2-magnitude quake struck the southern coast of Guerrero state earlier this month, the National Seismological Institute in Mexico City said. The quake was not felt in the nation's capital.

Guerrero is home to the Pacific resort of Acapulco, about 180 miles south-southwest of Mexico City. A 4.0-magnitude earthquake can cause moderate damage.

Lucent Technologies plans Brazil manufacturing plant

SAO PAULO, Brazil

Lucent Technologies Inc. plans to build a cellular equipment manufacturing plant and global provisioning center in Brazil, boosting its investment in the country to more than $100 million.

The plant will be the first Lucent factory in Brazil and the sixth in the Caribbean and Latin America. Construction is to begin next week. The center will initially employ more than 300 people in manufacturing and distribution operations.

Lucent, spun off by AT&T Corp. in a restructuring in September, has more than 10,000 employees in 16 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Philippines and Panama seek better economic ties

PANAMA CITY, Panama

Philippines President Fidel Ramos met with Panama leaders for an official visit intended to boost economic ties between the two Pacific Rim nations.

Panama is keen to broaden ties with countries that belong to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and used Ramos' recent two-day visit to that end, government officials said. APEC's 18 nations represent the Asian Pacific Rim and Canada, Chile, Mexico and the United States.

''This is the first time an Asian leader has visited Panama,'' Foreign Ministry top official Marcel Salamin said. Ramos also is said to have discussed investment opportunities in U.S. military installations scheduled to be turned over to Panama in 1999.

Cuban foreign minister: Establish ties with U.S.

HAVANA

Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina thinks Cuba is ready to establish relations with the United States on the basis of respect for the principles of independence, sovereignty and mutual noninterference.

Robaina, whose declarations were carried in this week's Juventud Rebelde, said: ''We are interested in having relations with the United States, at any time, with only one condition: that there are no conditions.''

While the Cuban position is not new, some Western diplomats think its reiteration now is a reply to the Clinton administration's demand that Cuba institute major political reforms before the United States will seek an improvement in relations. The United States broke diplomatic relations with Cuba on Jan. 1, 1961.

Fishing boats protest Maracaibo oil spill damage

MARACAIBO, Venezuela

About 300 fishing boats staged a protest in Venezuela's principal oil export artery to highlight the damage caused by an oil spill there in February.

The demonstration deepened a shipping crisis in Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela's oil heartland, which is costing the country $20 million a month in lost oil earnings and gaining the country a bad name in the international shipping community, industry sources say.

Eyewitnesses said the recent protest, led by local governor Francisco Arias Cardenas, passed peacefully, and oil tanker traffic in the Lake Maracaibo shipping channel was not affected.

Colombian guerrilla leader captured near Medellin

BOGOTA, Colombia

The leader of Colombia's third-largest guerrilla group was captured this week as he rested at a farm near the northwest city of Medellin, army intelligence sources said.